Customer Success, Retention
PearsonAbout the Role:
The Retention Lead is responsible for defining and driving the end-to-end student retention strategy across partner schools, ensuring a clear, focused approach to improving student persistence and success. This role owns the identification, prioritization, and execution of the highest-impact levers across academic experience, student engagement, onboarding, and school operations.
Operating at the intersection of strategy, data, and execution, this role leads a hypothesis-driven, test-and-learn approach to student retention while translating insights into enterprise-level priorities and actionable initiatives. This includes designing and scaling interventions, aligning cross-functional teams, and ensuring retention efforts are coordinated, measurable, and focused on outcomes that drive meaningful improvement.
Success in this role requires strong cross-functional leadership and influence, partnering with Enrollment, Academics, School Operations, Product, and School Success to align on priorities, drive accountability, and embed retention into core operating rhythms. Ultimately, this role ensures retention is managed as a strategic, shared outcome, strengthening school success, partner satisfaction, and long-term growth across the organization.
Key Responsibilities
Retention Strategy Ownership
Define and evolve the end-to-end retention strategy across partner schools
Identify and prioritize the highest-impact drivers of retention
Translate strategy into clear initiatives, roadmaps, and measurable outcomes
Ensure alignment between retention strategy and broader business priorities
Retention Analytics & Insight Generation
Analyze retention, persistence, and attrition trends across partner schools, cohorts, and student segments
Identify key drivers of retention and disengagement, including academic, operational, and engagement factors
Develop dashboards and reporting to provide clear visibility into retention performance and leading indicators
Establish early warning indicators to proactively identify at-risk students and schools
Hypothesis-Driven Improvement & Scaling
Lead a structured test → learn → scale approach to retention
Develop and test hypotheses on key retention drivers (e.g., onboarding, engagement, academic experience, communication)
Partner with schools and cross-functional teams to design and implement pilots
Evaluate impact and scale successful interventions across partner schools
Enterprise Prioritization & Influence
Drive alignment on where to invest to improve retention outcomes
Influence cross-functional priorities across Enrollment, Academics, School Operations, Product, and School Success
Balance trade-offs and ensure focus on the highest-value initiatives
Act as a strategic advisor to leadership on retention performance and opportunities
Performance Management & Governance
Establish clear retention targets, metrics, and success measures
Build and lead an operating rhythm (e.g., reviews, dashboards, performance discussions)
Ensure accountability for retention outcomes across teams and schools
Provide visibility into performance, risks, and opportunities
School-Level Enablement & Scaling Best Practices
Enable partner schools with insights, tools, and actionable guidance to improve retention
Identify patterns and replicate best practices across the network
Balance standardization with flexibility to meet local school needs
Data & Insight Integration
Leverage analytics to inform strategy and decision-making
Ensure retention insights are translated into clear actions and priorities
Partner with analytics teams to enhance visibility into retention drivers and leading indicators
Key Outcomes
Measurable improvement in student retention and persistence across partner schools
Clear, prioritized retention strategy aligned to business goals
Increased effectiveness of retention initiatives through testing and scaling
Strong cross-functional alignment and accountability for retention outcomes
Improved visibility into retention performance and drivers
Qualifications & Experience
8–12+ years of experience in strategy, operations, analytics, or related roles
Background in consulting or comparable environments with strong analytical and problem-solving rigor, along with industry experience—ideally in consumer or customer-centric businesses
Proven track record of driving cross-functional initiatives and influencing senior stakeholders
Experience leading strategy development and execution at scale
Strong analytical foundation with ability to translate data into action
About Pearson Virtual Schools
Pearson Virtual Schools (PVS) is a leader in the rapidly growing U.S. virtual education market, delivering high-quality online learning experiences to more than 100,000 K–12 students nationwide. Built on the foundation of Connections Academy nearly 20 years ago, PVS combines innovative technology, rigorous curriculum, and dedicated educators to expand access to exceptional digital learning.
PVS serves students through three core offerings: Partner Schools, District Partnerships, and Pearson Online Academy. Partner Schools provide turnkey virtual school solutions for public school students across the country, District Partnerships deliver customized virtual learning programs for school districts, and Pearson Online Academy operates as an accredited private online school.
Join us and help shape the future of K–12 education.
Compensation at Pearson is influenced by factors including skill set, experience, and location.
The full-time salary range for this role is $120,000 - $140,000.
This position is eligible for Pearson’s annual incentive program. Information on benefits can be found here.
Applications will be accepted through 6/5/26. This window may be extended depending on business needs.